Show notes
Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles is a true crime podcast that pairs dramatic readings of articles with interviews conducted with journalists who covered the stories.
For this set of episodes we're looking at a multi-part series from the Buffalo News Watchdog Team of Lou Michel, Dan Herbeck, and Mike McAndrew that launched Friday, Jan. 20, about a decades old murder of a Catholic Priest. The homicide went unsolved amid vague rumors of a cover-up.
Read more: Keep up with the series as the articles are published
Day 1: 'Father isn't coming': All was silent at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse when the first few nuns filed into the small chapel and bowed their heads in prayer. It was 6:30 a.m. on March 13, 1966. But O'Connor, expected to arrive soon to perform the 7 a.m. Mass, never appeared. Read more
Day 2: Three boys discover a body in Scajaquada Creek: The dead man's wallet was missing, but officers discovered he was Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor, 44, one of the most prominent priests in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese. Read more
Day 3: His Impala is found, and police zero in on homicide: It took more than 14 hours before police located O’Connor’s 1966 gray, four-door Chevy Impala. It was parked just over 1 mile away from where his body was found in an upscale neighborhood, two blocks north of Delaware Park, when it was found at 3:20 a.m. Monday, March 14, 1966. The possibility of suicide was soon replaced by homicide. Read more
Day 4: A rising star's death is a 'staggering blow' to Catholic community: Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor rose from humble roots to become one of Buffalo’s most influential priests, making his murder all the more shocking to the deeply Catholic community of the 1960s. For more than half a century, his unsolved murder has generated all kinds of speculation about the identity and motive of the killer or killers. Theories have included speculation about his sexual orientation to suggestions that O'Connor heard a confession about a sin so terrible that it put him in grave danger. Read more
Day 5: A 57-year-old box of evidence reveals a case that goes cold: Inside a tiny interrogation room at the Buffalo Police homicide bureau, journalists, for two days, read and reread files, took extensive notes and compared details in reports. It became clear that what started out as a massive investigation involving dozens of detectives was suddenly halted without an explanation provided in the official reports or to the public. Read more
Day 6: Renowned sleuth Leo Donovan oversaw murder investigation: Leo J. Donovan was no stranger to headline-making murder cases. By the time he retired in 1985, he had served as the chief of the Buffalo Police homicide squad longer than anyone in the department’s history. During his 21 years in that position, Donovan headed investigations into about 4,000 unexplained deaths and homicides, including some of the most notorious crimes in Buffalo over the past century. But he was a relative newcomer to high-profile cases in 1966. Read more
Day 7: A diocese journalist emerges as a suspect: Buffalo homicide detectives took a special interest in a young reporter for the Catholic Diocese newspaper after his boss was murdered. A day after Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor’s body was found floating in Scajaquada Creek on March 13, 1966, detectives interviewed Robert Armbruster. He told them he was physically attracted to the priest, but had fantasized about taking an ax to his head, according to 56-year-old police reports obtained by The Buffalo News. Read more
Day 8: Detectives chased tips around the clock after murder: Though so much of the work conducted by detectives would lead to dead-ends, the 56-year-old homicide file The Buffalo News reviewed in 2022 reflects meticulous police work was being carried out early in the probe. Read more
Day 9: Did his sexuality have anything to do with his murder?:None of the Buffalo police reports on the unsolved murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor identify him as being gay. But it is clear that homicide detectives wanted to know 57 years ago if homosexuality had anything to do with the crime. In reports on the 1966 case, detectives said they received information from fellow officers suggesting they look at criminals known to rob gay men and investigate gay bars for possible leads. Read more
Day 10: A priest becomes a suspect in the monsignor's murder: The 56-year-old reports obtained by The Buffalo News revealed for the first time that the Rev. John D. Lewandowski was considered a suspect by police. And while the reports do not say why, there are clues that suggest reasons for focusing on Lewandowski. Read more
Day 11: Priest suspected in murder was accused of molesting boys: Decked out in a skin-tight wrestler’s uniform and high-top boots, Rev. John D. Lewandowski in the 1960s would sometimes hold weekend training sessions where he would teach wrestling moves to adolescent and teenage boys. But according to some of the seven men who decades later filed Child Victims Act lawsuits accusing Lewandowski of sexual abuse, the priest used the wrestling sessions to connect with victims he molested. They also recalled that Lewandowski told them he knew how to use wrestling moves to kill someone. Read more
Day 12: A trip to Bemus Point to fingerprint and interview wayward priest: Thirteen days after the murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor, two of Buffalo's top homicide investigators traveled 70 miles through a snowstorm to conduct a highly unusual interview. Buffalo police homicide squad Chief Leo J. Donovan and Sgt. John C. Rapp visited a retreat house run by the Buffalo Catholic Diocese in Bemus Point, a popular vacation spot on Chautauqua Lake. There they would interview the Rev. John D. Lewandowski. Donovan’s six-page account of the interview, dated March 26, 1966, is among the most fascinating reports in the O’Connor case file. Read more
Day 13: Diocese secretly used Bemus Point mansion to house molester priests: In 1966, Buffalo priests who were accused of sexually abusing children did not have to worry about being arrested. Instead, some were sent for a time out in the lap of luxury – a stately mansion in this beautiful vacation community, on a property with lush, rolling lawns, tennis courts and a gorgeous view of Chautauqua Lake, a Buffalo News investigation has revealed. The mansion served as the Buffalo Diocese's secret place of confinement for at least two molester priests in the 1960s. Read more
Day 14: Suddenly, the murder investigation ends: For the first month, the Buffalo Police Department threw everything they had at solving the 1966 murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor. Detectives were brought in from precincts all over Buffalo to help the Homicide Squad find a killer. FBI agents, State Police and the New York City Police Department were consulted. But then, the investigation was suddenly shut down, with no arrests or explanation. Read more
Day 15: Former prosecutor links a monsignor to murder: Buffalo’s Catholic Diocese has never seen another priest like Monsignor Franklin M. Kelliher, the former amateur boxing champion and professional wrestler who acted as the unofficial disciplinarian for priests who misbehaved. Priests who drank to excess, gambled, stole money, molested children, had affairs or engaged in other crimes or frowned-upon behavior were taken to Kelliher for physical punishment, according to two police sources and several retired priests who spoke to The Buffalo News. Read more
Day 16: Could a Buffalo bishop shut down a murder investigation?: Bishop James A. McNulty left no doubt who was the boss during the nine years he spent in charge of Buffalo’s Catholic Diocese. But was he powerful enough to stop Buffalo police from investigating the murder of one of his priests? Did he? Nearly 57 years later after the death of Monsignor Francis J. O'Connor, with Bishop James A. McNulty and everyone in his inner circle long dead, questions remain about the former bishop and whether he had a role in ending the police investigation into the still unsolved homicide. Read more
Day 17: What became of two suspects in unsolved murder?: Two brothers of Robert Armbruster, who was once a suspect in the unsolved 1966 murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor, say he was a fragile, lovable man incapable of violence. The nieces and nephews of Rev. John D. Lewandowski, who also was once a suspect in the murder, declined to talk about their uncle. Read more
Day 18: Family left in the dark about why murder went unsolved: The murder of Monsignor Francis J. O'Connor has remained unsolved, but an investigation by The Buffalo News has found that two Buffalo Diocese employees, including a priest, Rev. John D. Lewandowski, were among several suspects in the March 13, 1966, slaying. But that was something never shared with the O’Connor family, said Sharon Bottini, O’Connor’s closest living relative. Read more
We certainly encourage you to subscribe to Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles wherever you get your podcasts to catch all our upcoming coverage of the series as well as keep an eye on Buffalo News for the articles as they publish starting this weekend.
'Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles' is a product of Lee Enterprises, a leading provider of local news, information and advertising in 77 U.S. markets and communities. The program is hosted and recorded by Nat Cardona with additional production from Lee Enterprises.
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